United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Madhya Pradesh is the second largest state in terms of geographical area and sixth largest state by population in India. The population of Madhya Pradesh is 72.59 million (2011 census), and the population density is 196 people per square kilometer. More than 75% of state population resides in villages whose main occupation is agriculture. The literacy rate is 63.70%.
The Government of Madhya Pradesh implements, various social welfare as well as development-related schemes and programmes through 57 functional departments having their own administrative setup in 50 Districts.
The State considers delivery of effective and efficient services to its citizen is the foremost challenge. It was felt that notwithstanding various initiatives of the Government like the citizens charter, the citizens do not get the services from the responsible government officials in time limits prescribed. The problem is more acute in rural areas particularly affecting weaker sections and women.
There appeared to be general lack of accountability accentuated by casual attitude of the functionaries. The inability of the citizen to assert, their ignorance of the procedures and a diffused effort of the state in correcting these shortcomings were adding to the problem.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
“Madhya Pradesh Lok Sevaon ke pradan ki Guarantee Adhiniyam 2010” (Madhya Pradesh Guarantee of Public Service Delivery Act, 2010) passed in August 2010 and implemented from 25th September 2010. This land mark legislation provides (1) Statuary justifiable right to the eligible citizen to obtain notified services within stipulated time frame, from the designated officers, who are made legally duty bound to provide the service to entitled applicant. (2) In case designated officer fails to provide service, a two tier grievance redressal mechanism in the form of first appeal and second appeal. (3) Imposition of penalty on the errant officials and compensation to the aggrieved applicant who may have been wrongfully denied the service. For this To implement above design of the act, it is made mandatory that every applicant gets a receipt of the application for a notified service, indicating the date by which the service will be delivered and in case the service is not provided by the date indicated in the receipt by the designated officer, redressal mechanism may be set in motion. This initiative is a major paradigm shift in the policy regime of citizen charter which was a mere intent of the government to a right based delivery, akin to shifting an item from directive principal of the state policy to the area of fundamental right.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The sole objective of the initiative is to provide the services in stipulated time limit to all citizens in general and to disadvantage section of the society like women, Scheduled caste and scheduled tribe population, in particular. The strategy adopted is as under- (1) Preparing transparent standard operating procedures;-. The form of the application, eligibility criteria, documents required to be attached and the process that the designated officer shall follow in providing the service have been put in place. This has made process of fixing and accountability of the designated officers easy and transparent, thereby encourage them to respond to the application of the citizen and deliver them in time. (2) Online registration of applications and its tracing and monitoring the offices of about 1500 designated officers were equipped with computers and connectivity for online registration of applications. Web based software delivers SMS to the applicants at various stages of the process. (3) 25th September is celebrated as public service day in the state. In a campaign, Gram Sabhas (meeting of the voters of the village) were organized in every village to generate awareness about the new law and its advantages for the common man. (4) A new “Department of public service management” dedicated to the administration of the act has been set up. (5) A new office of District Manager has been created in each district to monitor and facilitate delivery of services to applicants. (6) Continuous training of the officials and the public representatives especially at the ground level. (7) Phased increase in the number of services notified. In the first phase, 26 services of Nine Departments were notified and subsequently 26 more services have been added. Thus presently 52 services of 16 departments are covered under the Act. Gradually all the Services offered by the Government will come under its ambit. (8) National informatics centre has developed comprehensive Public Service Management System. The System provides for Online Registration of Applications, its updated status for continuous monitoring at all levels. . The status of application can also be tracked by the applicant. Presently about 50% of the designated officers are using the system and gradually others will join as soon as they are equipped with necessary infrastructure.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
It has been recognized the world over that good governance is essential for sustainable development, both economic and social. The three essential aspects emphasized in good governance are transparency, accountability and responsiveness of the administration. Citizens’ Charters are an effort to address these issues by focusing on solving the problems which citizens encounter while dealing with the organizations providing public services. But this initiative has put legal might behind citizen charter by granting legal right to the citizen to obtain notified service in stipulated time. The key benefits of the initiates are 1) Increase in accountability of Government officials delivering the services to the citizens. 2) Assured time bound delivery of the service. 3) Increased transparency by the use of ICT. 4) By November 2011, 8.06 millions applications have been disposed after this initiative 5) 0.63 million application have been registered online since August 2011. 6) Empowered the common man 7) Credibility of the Government enhanced.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
(1) The need of effective and timely delivery of public services needs no emphasis. To examine processes of change and reform in delivery of public services, detailed state and sector-level studies of topical relevance were made by subject specialists. Research and development work is being carried out by the School of Good Governance. (2) The idea of statuary citizen charter was deliberated with the stakeholders, in workshops on "Good Governance" and brainstorming sessions named "Manthan" held in 2007 and 2009. A draft bill was prepared and put on the website for suggestions from citizens. (3) In a special three day session of the State Legislative Assembly, it was resolved that Citizen Charter Act be enacted. (4) In pursuance of the above resolution of the State Legislative Assembly and at the instance of Hon’ble Chief Minister, a draft citizen charter bill was prepared in the shape of "Madhya Pradesh Lok Sevaon ke Pradan ki Guarantee Bill 2010", which was passed by the Assembly on 18th August 2010 and it came into effect on 25th September 2010. The department of public service management meant for administrating the Act was set up in September, 2010.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
1. Creating an environment where in the delivery system i.e. the designated officers in particular and the bureaucracy in general to own the initiative This is a continuous effort being made by the unrelenting commitment at the highest level. Capacity building of the offices and officers undertaken and emphasis laid on troubleshooting where delivery is visibly lacking rather than punishing officials for their failings if any. They have to be molded through training to become citizen centric. 2. Changing mindset The common man has to now understand the meaning of acquiring this right and the manner of asserting it. This demands awareness generation which has been taken up in campaign mode. 3. Lack of availability of standard operating procedures from a citizen’s viewpoint. To overcome this situation, new set of instructions were issued containing details of the form of the application, eligibility criteria, documents required to be attached, and the process that the designated officer shall follow to provide service. 4. Lack of Strong Monitoring system The application of Information Technology played a crucial role in addressing the problem. National informatics centre has now developed comprehensive web based (http://lokseva.gov.in) Public Service Management System. The System provides for Online Registration of Applications, its updated status for continuous monitoring at all levels. The status of application can also be tracked by the applicant. The state of the art software has fulfilled the long pending demand of implementing a strong monitoring system accessible to all stakeholders.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
(1) The existing resources and manpower available within the Government were used by the respective departments in delivering the services by reorientation, redesign of process and training. (2) Some additional financial resources were used by various departments to supplement computer and network, design of training material and modules, in delivery of training and awareness generation campaign. (3) Around 20,000 officers from the existing manpower were designated to provide the services. These officers were given training in cascading mode by various departments. (4) Around 1500 computers were purchased from the existing budget and were deployed for delivery of services.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Elected governments are expected to provide accountable administration responsive to the needs of the people. The pressures on the public representatives to deliver goods to the citizen nay the voter is an essential feature of a democratic system which keeps it going. Having once provided a legal right to the citizen, the forces inherent in popular Government cannot be expected to go back on it. The peril of taking any such retrograde step is the root cause of sustainability and transferability of the initiative. This legislation puts citizen in the centre of Governance and therefore all successive popularly elected Governments can be expected to further strengthen the accountability and delivery framework of the public services. It is indeed relevant to mention that following the Madhya Pradesh example, eleven other States in India namely Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Karnataka have also enacted similar law that provide the right to public services to their populace. That the path breaking initiative of Madhya Pradesh has been emulated in the country by other elected state Governments is an evidence of transferability of the initiative.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The following issues gradually became evident during the course of the implementation of the initiative:- 1. For impact to become visible, unrelenting commitment at the top echelons is vital. 1. Legislation is only a tool whose effectiveness would depend on the intensity of the comprehensive focused approach adopted in implementing it. 2. Building capacity of the citizen to assert his newly acquired right is essential. 3. A citizen centric reengineering of the process used in delivery of public service is key activity. The administrative complexities coupled with the status quo approach of the departments makes this seemingly usual business a daunting challenge that is impossible to meet without the active involvement of the highest authority. 4. The capacity building of the office and the officer by way of training and providing appropriate technological tools is equally critical. 5. An independent interface between the service provider and the citizen (service receiver) seems necessary and the appropriate platform can be created through Public Private Partnership. Technology may be used to strengthen this new platform. The key element in the success achieved so far has been the urge to take midcourse corrective actions that the issues mentioned above suggested. The State Government at various stages of implementation continued to locate, recognize and admit shortcomings and the necessary decisions to overcome were made. Constant monitoring together with effective feedback system on real ground situation provided critical inputs for improvements.


Institution Name:		Public Service Delivery Management
Institution Type:		Government Department
Contact Person:		Iqbal Singh Bains
Title:		Mr.
Telephone/ Fax:		+91552551786
Institution's / Project's Website:		http://lokseva.gov.in
E-mail:		pshousenv@mp.gov.in
Address:		Principal Secretary, Public Service Management and Housing & Environment Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Room No. 321, Vallabh Bhawan
Postal Code:		462004
City:		Bhopal
State/Province:		Madhya Pradesh
Country:		India

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information